Where do ideas come from? How do you brainstorm or find new seeds to develop? Having trouble staying motivated or overcoming obstacles in your path? Share tricks and tips for finding new stories to tell and getting them on the page!

Prior to obtaining DramaticaPro I had several manuscripts in process, most of them written in MS Word. I've only just received my Dramatica software this week but it occurs to me after looking at the "story examples" in the Story Wizard that I might be able to import some of this unfinished work into DramaticaPro and continue working on them, giving them far more character development and better throughlines and depth than they have. Is this possible? Will these programs convert MSWord text to usable form in your software?If not:do I have to start from scratch?do you have software that will convert existing text (truefont) and if so, which ones?

My initial exploration of Dramatica is going well, and so far I like what I see.

New here. I may be the only one here from the looks. Still, I can comment. I tried DramaticaPro and didn't like it. That said, I used one of my failed novels and did just as you described. It's my favorite novel - only my favorite. No one wanted it. I put much of it into Dramatica and turned it into a screenplay. It seems no one wants that either, but I still have hopes.

For converting text, I don't remember. I think I saved it in rtf format, but wouldn't swear to that. It was a while ago.

DramaticaPro has improved my stories considerably. Some day I may get another novel published. I'm really focusing on screenplays now, although the switch from novel to screenplay is tough. I find screenplays harder work than novel writing.

A thought: If you have MM6, it has a novel writing template. Can you move it to that, then into Dramatica? I haven't looked at Dramatica in a while. Don't know if it's compatible with MM6 or not.

I still haven't figured out what to do with existing mss but I'm working on it. The first thing I'm doing is retyping and editing them and getting them into a format I can manipulate. Then I'll see what I can do with them as far as my software is concerned.I'm still exploring the software and finding that interesting.I've also been reading books, dozens of them so I'll be a bit more familiar with the market and with different writers styles and formats.Sometimes I like a certain writer's work so much I read a lot of their books, but then I study my response to them. Why do I like them over others? How did they hook me? Did I figure out the culprit before the end? ...and like that.I guess I'm still in the preparatory stages of my writing for now.

As to Chuck and how you might make money while you write, well you might try writing small articles or a column for a newspaper even smaller newspapers. You won't get rich doing it but it will keep you active at writing and should you develop a column in a paper, remember that you have begin a relationship with readers (if it becomes popular) so, you'll learn to meet deadlines and maintain the relationship with readers.

You might also write advertising. Some papers still hire people to do that I think. You could also develop a small weekly or monthly flyer with some business card adverts and give it away to coffee shops. You get your money from the adverts, and distributing them. You'd have to work out the costs of printing them and subtract that of course. You can also run horoscopes or puzzles on the flyer... or sayings or jokes. It's just something for someone to read while they have their coffee.

As to your own writing you can set aside several hours a day for that. Some people choose early mornings, but I like the dead of night.

Like you I'm new to this site and it seems deserted most of the time but I'll keep with it... other writers might emerge eventually.

I feel one way of motivating yourself is to participate in contests and winning them would give you a lot of inspiration.

We're running an 80s-themed short screenplay contest, and guess what? We're producing the winner's work. I am sure it will excite you. You can enter here: http:// scripped.com/contests/eighties. Feel free to email me if you have any questions - I'm at jenny@scripped.com.